


Breathe

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: Partners [18]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Feels, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 07:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2613155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny gets nightmares, too. Luckily, Steve is still there when he opens his eyes. </p><p>(Set after 5X07, aka episode 100)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathe

_In the nightmare, Steve never takes that breath._

_It’s exactly the same, right up until that second. It’s not physically possible for his subconscious to make Danny more terrified than he already was in the actual moment, his chest so full of ice that even inhaling felt like an effort. The parts of his brain not focused on rescuing Steve were full of white noise, because the only other option was screaming and he didn’t have time for that right then._

_But then he found out what he’d thought had been real fear was nothing, because he opened the door and … Steve._

_Steve wasn’t moving._

_He was too quiet, too still, Wo Fat laid out next to him and guns on the ground in an echo of a final shootout and Steve wasn’t_ fucking moving _. Danny had said his name, the word fragile and broken in his mouth as the entire world started to shatter around him._

_Then he’d seen Steve’s chest rise and fall, just a little, and suddenly everything was solid and sure. Danny drew the first full breath into his lungs in what felt like days and hurried over to his partner, while around them the world remembered how to spin on once again._

_Here, though, that breath never comes._

_The rest of Danny’s own air has disappeared at some point, but that’s the last thing he’s thinking about right now. His legs are threatening to give way, crumbling like everything else, but he makes it to Steve’s side before he hits his knees. He sets the gun down, hands shaking so badly he can barely make his fingers work as he rips off his gloves and reaches out to touch Steve’s poor, bruised face. He can’t find a gunshot wound, but that doesn’t matter. Steve’s so still. He’s never supposed to be this still._

_Danny feels a hand on his shoulder, but he can’t think enough to figure out who it might be. His head is full of screaming, individual thoughts drowned out in a wail of rage and agony that will be a thousand times better than whatever comes next._

_His vision blurs, everything inside him breaking. “Damn it, Steve,” he whispers, but there’s no one left to hear him anymore._

000

Danny forced his eyes open, breathing harsh in the darkness of their bedroom as he cursed his subconscious in every way he knew how. He needed a hug right now more than he needed oxygen, needed to hear the sound of his partner’s voice, but he didn’t ask for either. Steve was still having his own trouble with nightmares and he needed every bit of sleep he could get.

Carefully moving Steve’s arm out of the way – his hands were shaking enough he had to concentrate – Danny sat up and tried to force his heart back into something resembling a normal rhythm. The nightmares about Steve dying happened infrequently enough he could never get used to them, and this one was so close to reality it felt like it hit a thousand times harder than all the others.

Maybe _he_ should go see someone. As much as he hated talking to shrinks, it had to be better than facing _that_ particular hell even one more time.

He heard Steve wake up next to him. “Danny?”

“Just a nightmare.” Danny swallowed past the roughness in his voice. “Go back to sleep.”

“Sure. Because that line always works on you.” He felt the bed shift as Steve sat up, leaning against Danny’s back and wrapping his arms around his waist. It felt like being pressed up against a furnace, and it was so exactly what Danny needed he felt his eyes sting.

They stayed like that for a long moment, Danny just listening to Steve breathe. Then Steve pressed a kiss against his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Danny closed his eyes. “I know.”

Steve sighed. “I say that a lot, don’t I?”

Danny’s chest hurt. “It’s okay.” His voice cracked even as he tried for lightness. “They’re better last words than ‘I know what I’m doing’ or ‘it won’t be that big of an explosion.’”

Steve, though, wasn’t having it. “Those won’t be my last words.” His voice was absolutely serious as he pressed his cheek against the side of Danny’s head. “The last thing I’ll ever say to you will be ‘I love you.’”

Danny’s eyes filled as something inside him broke open. “Damn it, Steve….”

Steve’s arms tightened around him. “I’ll say it every night before we go to sleep, until we’re both old men and the biggest thing you have to worry about is stopping me from telling the grandkids stories about all the stunts we used to pull.” The whisper was fierce, as if he could will it into reality just by believing hard enough. “And one day, a long, long time in the future, our bodies will wear out at exactly the same time and we just won’t wake up. And whenever that is, the last thing you’ll have heard from me is ‘I love you.’”

Danny turned around in Steve’s arms, kissing him with all the force of emotion rising up inside him, and Steve gave him back just as much as he got. They broke apart only for an instant, Danny’s mouth still against Steve’s skin. “I love you,” he breathed.

Danny felt Steve’s smile as much as he heard it. “I love you, too.”

Then there lips met again, and there was nothing left but each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my weekly posts and original short fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


End file.
